


Business Meetings Aren't Sexy

by Sophie



Series: Everything Is Always Planned [1]
Category: Alpha Flight, Marvel
Genre: First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 18:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/298688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophie/pseuds/Sophie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kyle is Jean-Paul Beaubier's new event manager. He just needs to figure out what this entitles, exactly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Business Meetings Aren't Sexy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VanaTuivana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanaTuivana/gifts).



> To fit with the way they do it in many comics, everything in between < ... > is in another language. In this case, in French. I wrote this fic with all the French dialogues in French, and that bilingual version can be found [on my DW](http://not-unwise.dreamwidth.org/14440.html).
> 
> On the concept of the tutoiement/vouvoiement: the French language has a [T-V distinction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E2%80%93V_distinction). There is a polite form of 'you' (vous) and a more informal form of 'you' (tu). JP and Kyle use the polite form until late in the fic.
> 
> Thanks to [Tali](http://archiveofourown.org/users/inabathrobe) for the beta.

Kyle has had a long day of repeating to the people working under him obvious things like "There's no way we can make the Charlevoix event ten days long" over and over until he wanted to smash someone's head against a wall. The easiest would be his own head, but it could also be one of the event planners', who keep answering him in kicked-puppy-dog voices: "But Mister Beaubier _wants_ it to be ten days." He has even tried imagining smashing Jean-Paul Beaubier's head against a wall, but it doesn't work because, even in his own mind, the man's superpowers keep Kyle from even touching him before Beaubier pins him down on the floor.

He wouldn't exactly _mind_ his boss pinning him to the floor, except when he thinks about it for more than three seconds and lets the rational side of his mind overtake the "but, damn, this man is hot" side.

His day is supposed to be over, but in his job description as Jean-Paul Beaubier's brand new personal event manager, he's the one who has to tell the former X-Man when his demands are impossible to uphold. His headache pounds louder in his temples just thinking about the amazing conversation he's going to have in a few minutes.

He sort of wants to go see Jeanne-Marie and tell her to tell her twin that if he keeps asking for ridiculously long events that have no chance whatsoever of getting their investment back, he's going to bankrupt his own company. Of course, that wouldn't be very professional of him, and he still needs to prove himself to everyone ever because they all know he got the gig because he's a close friend of the COO.

It doesn't help his motivation that, in the week he's been Jean-Paul's personal event manager, he's been wondering what the hell that "personal" word meant because he hasn't seen him at all the entire time. Kyle makes decisions, doesn't hear back from the boss, and that's pretty much it.

They’ve met once before actually, but Kyle doubts Jean-Paul remembers it. It happened in Jeanne-Marie's office; they were supposed to be talking about the next big event's budget and if they could afford to rent part of the Congress Center for it, but Jeanne-Marie had asked about Kyle's boyfriend, and Kyle had just broken up at the time, so that's what they had started talking about instead.

"< Do something to distract yourself. Go clubbing, get drunk. > Get laid."

"< I'm not going to go clubbing to get someone at thirty. >"

"< Twenty-nine. >"

"< Still too old. >"

"< Ah, of course. _Twenty-nine years old_. An old man already. Be careful about that arthritis.  >"

Kyle had been about to point out that Jeanne-Marie herself wasn't much older and that he wasn't seeing her go pick up dates at night, but he was interrupted by someone in the doorway. "< I hope you don't mind if I interrupt this conversation, which is clearly incredibly important for the future of the company. >"

Kyle stiffened in his chair, and Jeanne-Marie laughed. "< Do I need to start closing the door to my office? >"

"< You know you don't. > No one other than me has the audacity to walk in unannounced—"

"And _you_ wouldn't mind opening a closed door.  < Is it important? >"

"< Yes >"

Jeanne-Marie had sighed. "< We'll talk later, Kyle. Oh, JP, do you know Kyle? > He's one of our event planners."

And that is how they'd been introduced. No handshake, barely an acknowledgement, and then Kyle was out of Jeanne-Marie's office.

Jean-Paul’s current office is the same room that was Jeanne-Marie’s office back then. Jeanne-Marie had claimed it had too many windows and relocated on a higher floor, leaving the biggest office in the building empty, so Jean-Paul took it over. And, unlike his sister, he keeps _his_ door closed.

Kyle sighs one last time and knocks on the door.

"< Come in! >"

Kyle makes sure he has the most serious "I know what I am doing" face he can when he opens the door. Jean-Paul is sitting behind his desk writing, and he barely glances up when Kyle walks in. "< You are? >"

Right. "Kyle Jinadu. < Your new event manager. >"

"Ah, yes. Clarisse took that offer from Desjardins. < I guess you're not here just to introduce yourself? >"

"< No. It's about the week in Charlevoix. >" Kyle takes a few long steps forward.

"< The ten days. >"

"< The _week_ in Charlevoix.  >" Kyle repeats. "< Maximum. It's completely impossible for it to last ten days. >"

Jean-Paul stops writing and fully looks up at Kyle for the first time ever. He has a really intense gaze. He’s not even staring, not exactly, but it feels like it. The man is _charismatic_ , which isn’t something Kyle doesn’t already know, but it’s a lot more obvious right now alone with him in his office.

"< So you're telling me that you can't accomplish the very first task that you've been given at your new job? >"

Kyle has known that this would look bad, so he’s ready for this. "< My job is to tell you what you can do and when. If the first event I have to run from beginning to end has issues, well then, yes, I'll have to change some things around. >"

"I would think I know more about my own company than you. You can make ten days work."

"Okay. No. I’m sorry, I obviously don’t want to sound like I’m looking for trouble, but I know what I’m doing. I’ve been working for this company for three years and I was an event planner for nearly as long. I know what can work and what won’t, and I—" Kyle takes the few missing steps so he can reach Jean-Paul’s desk and sit on one of the chairs in front of it. He fumbles through his briefcase until he has the file he’s looking for. "There. I have all the monetary quotes and how much time, personnel, and money Charlevoix would require if it were ten days long."

Jean-Paul raises an eyebrow and takes the file from Kyle’s hand, leaning back in his chair to flip through it and looking entirely too good as he does.

The silence stretches a little and makes Kyle uncomfortable. "< I know that you have a lot of experience and you are definitely the most competent CEO I've ever worked for, but you do hire specialised employees for a reason. >" The "I know more about this than you do" is implied, and Kyle likes his job too much to say it out loud.

Jean-Paul finishes flipping through the file and hands it back over to Kyle.

"Okay."

"...Okay?"

"< You're right. Charlevoix shouldn't last ten days. You did good when you built this case. In fact, I'm impressed. >"

Kyle has expected to have to argue every little point in detail and not to be out for another exhausting hour. The surprise takes away his voice for a moment.

"< Actually, seven days is also too long. You should have asked for five days, but over all, you know what you're doing. >"

"Uhm. < Thanks. >"

"< Was that all? >"

"< Yes? Yes, that was all. >"

"< Well, you're doing a good job. Keep it up. >"

Kyle knows that he's being dismissed and on a positive note, too, but he can't make himself stand up. Too many things are still bothering him.

"< Are you sure there is nothing else? >" Jean-Paul asks, amused, after a few seconds.

And why the hell not? Apparently his boss likes him anyway. "< So you knew all along that ten days was too long? >"

"< Of course. No event happening in Québec can be that long. >"

"< But you still demanded ten days. In fact, you insisted until all my planners were begging me to find a way to make it work, even though they all knew it made no sense. >"

Jean-Paul stares at him and smiles. "< Tell me, why were you promoted? >"

Kyle stares back and says, sure of himself, "< Because I applied for the job. >"

"No. At least three other people should have gotten this job before you. You're my new event manager because you're a friend of my sister and she wants you to keep an eye on me."

Kyle doesn't know what to answer, but Jean-Paul doesn't seem to want an answer anyway, as he keeps on talking.

"< I trust that Jeanne-Marie won't jeopardise the company by putting an incompetent in one of the most important positions we have. > But I still needed to make sure."

"So it was a test?"

"I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't been late your very first day on the job."

Kyle winces. The subway had been delayed for half an hour because of a drunk guy who had decided walking on the tracks was a good idea. He's not going to try and justify himself to Jean-Paul, though. He hasn't asked Kyle to do so. Kyle's a bit pissed at Jean-Paul because his day has been exhausting and now mostly useless, but he can see why Jean-Paul thought it necessary to do this.

"You passed with a pretty good grade, if it's any consolation."

"I guess it is."

"Good. < Now that this is done, we'll see a lot of each other in the future; I keep in close contact with my manager, so I'd prefer if we used our first names with each other and dropped the _vouvoiement_. It shouldn't be too hard, considering the amount of gossip about me you probably know because of Jeanne-Marie.  >"

"< ...You keep in close contact with your managers? >"

Kyle asks, using the polite form of "you" out of habit, even though he was just asked not to. Jean-Paul obviously has no problem switching to "tu" but Jean-Paul is speaking to someone lower than him in the hierarchy. Kyle has had plenty of bosses who would use the informal "you" with him but expected the polite "you" in return.

Jean-Paul stares at him, unimpressed. "So I see you'll have to work on the _tutoiement_."

"< Sorry. It's just that we haven't seen each other at all for the entire week. >"

"I wasn't going to befriend someone I was probably going to fire at the end of the week."

"But I'm not getting fired now?"

"No, you're staying."

"And I have to _tutoie_ you when we speak French?" He feels very uncomfortable about the idea. Getting close to Jean-Paul is supposed to stay in fantasy-world, and he doesn't really like it crossing over to the real world.

"< It won't be difficult >"

"I think I'll just always speak English."

"< Mandatory French. I'll put it in your contract. >"

Kyle doesn't know if Jean-Paul is serious or not. The eye contact makes him want to squirm a bit.

"< And we're going out tonight. >"

"< What? >"

Jean-Paul shrugs as if it was a usual occurrence. "< Business dinner. We'll talk about Charlevoix and my expectations. It'll be on the company's dime. >"

Kyle thinks about excuses he could come up with to get out of this. He needs to get back home early today, he's already meeting someone, his parents are in town... The part of him that thinks spending an evening with Jean-Paul Beaubier would be a bad idea gets trumped by the part that is just excited about it. In fact, if he twists the situation just a little bit, this is pretty much a very attractive man asking him out on a date.

"< Okay. I'll go get my coat. >"


End file.
